FX: Analysing Complex Systems: The BlackBerry Case

Black Hat Briefings, Las Vegas 2006 [Video] Presentations from the security conference

When trying to analyze a complex system for its security properties, very little information is available in the beginning. If the complex system in question contains parts that the analyst cannot see or touch, proprietary hardware and software as well as large scale server software, the task doesn't get any easier. The talk will tell the story about how Phenoelit went about looking at RIM's BlackBerry messaging solution while focusing on the approaches tryed their expected and real effectiveness. FX is the leader of the Phenoelit group and loves to hack pretty much everything with a CPU and some communication, preferably networked. FX looks back at as little as eight years of (legal) hacking with only a few Cisco IOS and SAP remote exploits, tools for hacking HP printers and protocol attacks lining the road. Professionally, FX runs SABRE Security's consulting arm SABRE Labs, specializing in reverse engineering, source code audits and on-demand R&D of industry grade security architectures & solutions."